Books

First spotted on designboom, this whimsically illustrated guide on tiny home living is an extreme DIY take on the tiny home trend. The author, Dan Price, built his own tiny house for less than $100! Almost all of the construction materials were salvaged for free and the site is leased at a minimal cost.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve written a fair amount on the 5th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam (you can see our overview of the IABR here). There’s been a lot going on in the contemporary world’s architectural heart as part of the 5th version of the IABR, including a rooftop farm, a pop-up urban village for surfers, and an exhibition about art interventions in Douala. In addition to all the happenings across town, the curators of the IABR have put together a nice catalogue of the exhibits that we’re excited to be giving away three copies of the catalogue to our lucky readers!

Last year, Le Cool invited us to be one of the contributors to a new book about ideas and projects that improve the city. We were very glad to find the final result in our post box some weeks ago. ‘A Smart Guide to Utopia’ is a book about cool urban initiatives, but not just another book about cool urban initiatives. It starts out with a fabulous admission from Ben Hammersley: that the city is the natural habitat of humanity. We need our cities just as much as they need us. They are the engines of humanity, and this book shows 111 different ways that this is happening right now.

This afternoon we published our interview with architect and urban designer Hella Hernberg, author of ‘Helsinki Beyond Dreams’, an inspiring book that showcases the Finnish capital’s flourishing grassroots culture. We’re happy to give away a copy of ‘Helsinki Beyond Dreams’ to one of our lucky readers!

Moleskine, purveyor of quality stationery, has added books to their repertoire. As of late, the brand has been branching out to better reflect our contemporary nomadism. These include city guides, reading accessories and, the latest addition, books. Moleskine’s new collection, called Inspiration and Process in Architecture, is dedicated to four key figures/offices in contemporary architecture: Zaha Hadid, Giancarlo De Carlo, Bolles+Wilson and Alberto Kalach.

Some time ago I wrote about the question “How to democratize art?”. Aram Bartholl’s work is maybe one of the best examples of how to engage a large group of people with contemporary art. Bartholl meticulously tore down those boundaries built around the image of the ‘artwork’ as something far from our everyday lives, converting people into active participants of his projects. Gestalten dedicated one of its latest publications to him. The Speed Book is the first comprehensive monograph of Bartholl’s projects, with essays on his work, an interview and AB News #1 and #2, two supplements conceived in the shape of a magazine.

Cologne-based publisher Taschen is known for its picture-rich books that focus on art, design and architecture. In 2011 it launched Temporary Architecture Now!, a publication that sets itself apart from the other architecture books in Taschen’s collection.

Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist are the authors of a brilliantly fresh book called Project Japan: Metabolism Talks…. The book not only discusses a fascinating subject (the Metabolist movement in Japan) but also breathes inspiration on every single page. Project Japan is a clever and beautiful book that fits effortlessly in a series of stunning Koolhaas books, like S, M, L, XL, Mutations and Content. The book reads like a reference and is obviously made by someone who has a background in film-making and is an expert in the relation between image and text.